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IT teams are struggling with choosing between less critical, but important tasks, versus focusing on innovative projects to help transform their business. Both are necessary for your business and need to get done, but should your team do all of it? Have you thought about allowing someone else to guide you through the process while your internal team continues to focus on transforming the business? Disaster recovery can take a lot of time to properly implement so it may be the right time to consider a third-party provider who can help with some of the more routine and technical aspects of your disaster recovery planning. This help can free up some of your staff’s valuable time while also safeguarding your vital data.
Information technology has raised many questions about how it really should be done. Some experts believe in the idea of DRaaS. They believe that data protection, although necessary, has very little to do with core business functionality. Organizations commonly outsource non-business services which have driven many to consider the idea of outsourcing for other business initiatives. This has led businesses to believe that all IT services should also be outsourced which allows the main focus of the IT team to be solely dedicated to core business functions and transformational growth.
Other groups challenge the concept and believe that the idea of outsourcing data protection is foolish. An organization’s ability to quickly and completely recover from a disaster can be the determining factor as to whether the organization will still be in business a year later. Outsourcing something as critical as data protection means putting your organization’s destiny into the hands of someone who doesn’t care about your business. The basic philosophy behind this type of thinking can best be described as: “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
Clearly, both sides have some compelling arguments. On one hand, by moving your data protection solution to the cloud, your organization can make itself more agile. Cloud data protection may also lower costs. On the other hand, managing data protection in-house gives the organization complete control over its data protection initiatives.
So, is it better to outsource all of your organization’s data protection functions, or is it better to manage it yourself? Like so many other things in life, it might not be in your best interest to fully support either option. A better choice might be to take an approach that falls somewhere in the middle with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) and Backup as a Service (BaaS). Although, choosing the right cloud provider for a fully managed recovery solution is also a possibility.
It is also essential when it comes to your online backups to strike a balance between micromanaging the operations and completely relinquishing any sort of responsibility. After all, it’s important to know what’s going on with your backups.
Given the critical nature of the backups and recovery of your data, it is essential to do your homework before simply handing over backup operations to a random cloud provider. There are a number of things that you should look for when evaluating a provider.
- Service-level agreements that meet your needs
- Frequent reporting, and management visibility through an online portal
- All-inclusive pricing
- Failover assistance in a moment’s notice
- Do-it-yourself testing
- Flexible network layer choices
- Support for legacy systems
- Strong security and compliance standards
These capabilities can go a long way toward allowing an organization to check on their data recovery and backups on an as-needed basis, while also instilling confidence that the provider is protecting the data according to your needs. 11:11 Systems allows you the flexibility to spend as much or as little time on your data protection needs. Balance is important to managing and running your business. Should you decide to outsource all of your DR needs, be sure to talk with 11:11 about our managed services with our 11:11 Autopilot Managed Recovery for DRaaS.
